A Controversial Uber Executive Got In A Nasty Legal Fight With His Landlord

Uber SVP Emil Michael made headlines last month when during a
private dinner
he reportedly proposeda million-dollar campaign
to dig up personal details of journalists who were critical of
his employer.

It turns out that he takes an aggressive approach in interactions
with his landlord as well.

According to court records, Michael
filed a petition for a restraining order against his
landlord, John Danforth, in September 2013.

"He is my landlord who I believe suffers from an obsession
with entering my dwelling and harasses me to get me to move out,"
Michael wrote
in the petition. "I am under constant emotional duress
that a stranger can enter my apartment without notice requiring
me to defend myself."

Michael signed a lease for a 1,986-square-foot condo in
Danforth's Pacific Heights building in June 2012. In the lease,
Michael agreed to pay $9,500 a month for the three-bedroom
apartment, which has a private garden, views of Alta Plaza Park,
and a remote-control hot tub. According to
BuzzFeed, his rent has since increased to $13,335 a month.

Michael and Danforth have not gotten along in the two years
Michael has lived there. Court documents show that when in June
2013 Danforth entered the apartment to make a routine repair,
which Michael had requested, he discovered that Michael had
painted the interior walls despite being denied permission to do
so.

Michael pays more than
$13,000 a month for this condo in Pacific
Heights.Redfin

Danforth also walked out to the balcony to examine a previous
repair to the hot tub. In the petition, Michael complained that
Danforth had entered areas of the apartment that didn't need
work, which made him uncomfortable.

"He refused to keep himself to the part of my dwelling that needs
repairs," Michael wrote in the
petition. "He is doing this to harass
me."

Michael alleged that Danforth harassed him by giving out his key
to several of his workers, including a gardener who took Michael
by surprise one day last summer. He even
armed himself with a baseball bat when he heard the stranger
making noise in his backyard.

"The landlord has refused to give me notice when he seeks
to enter my backyard which looks right into my bedroom but is my
sole and exclusive private area," he wrote.

A judge
dismissed the case,
saying that Michael's claims were "borderline
frivolous."

"This appears
to be part of Mr. Michael's efforts to escalate (and/or
short-cut) a landlord-tenant dispute, something we have already
tried to resolve through multiple contractor visits, two
mediation sessions and protracted follow-up emails," Danforth
wrote in
court filings.

Michael hasn't
moved since the September 2013 decision by the court, but he and
Danforth have continued to exchange heated emails. In
messages obtained by BuzzFeed, Michael calls Danforth "snarky
and jealous" as well as a "patent troll and
slumlord."